Answered by:

P2V Windows NT4

Question

Ok so we have a very old NT4 box that we still need to keep, but I would like to scrap the hardware and move it onto our virtual environment. Currently I have P2V'd the NT4 box on a VMware workstation and changed the boot to use IDE controller instead
of SCSI. This seems to be working ok. I then used Vmdk2Vhd
to convert the VMware .vmdk to Hyper-V .vhd, created a new VM in SCVMM using the converted .vhd but NT4 will NOT boot! "Operating System Not Found"

Is it even possible to V2V NT4 on VMware to Hyper-V? Or is there another way to P2V NT4 onto Hyper-V? Or am I just wasting my time here...

If it is impossible, then is there anything wrong with having a VM hosted on our Hyper-V environment running VMware workstation which will host NT4? So Hyper-V Host -> XP Client (with VMware workstation) -> NT4. Or is this just too ridiculous??

Answers

As you may know, NT4 is not a supported guest OS under Hyper-V. But then again, NT4 is no longer a supported OS at all.

With that being said, NT4 may still very well run as a guest instance in Hyper-V, but without the integration services of course. You could try to perform an offline P2V using SCVMM, but no guarantess. According to this article, P2V is not supported by SCVMM
on OS's such as NT4:

Most other P2V / V2V conversion tools (SCVMM, Disk2VHD, etc.) will most likely not be able to convert NT4, due to its lack of VSS.

Personally I would see if there was a way to upgrade the server, but if you're beyond that, I would try to capture an image of the server by using a software like Symantec Ghost from within the VMWare VM and unpack the captured ghost image inside a
Hyper-V VM.

Simply take the VMDK + VMX from Vmware Workstation and copy them into the same folder in your SCVMM Library. Then wait for the Library to discover them.

SCVMM will take care of any conversion that is necessary that it knows to do. It should also read the VMX and configure a new VM that is very close to the origional.

I, personally, do not use VMDK2VHD as it is not up to date with changes to VHD and frequently causes problems.

Most likely you are running into an issue with embedded VMware drivers that you might not be able to get around. If you installed the VMware Tools into the VM.

I assume that this is some piece of legacy software that no one has the installation media for and can only run on NT4.

Beyond this, if you must get the box converted, for an operating system this old I recommending actually paying for a tool (such as PlateSpin, Altiris, etc.) that is designed to handle all the strangeness and not trying to rely on free tools.

Brian Ehlert (hopefully you have found this useful)
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.
Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

All replies

As you may know, NT4 is not a supported guest OS under Hyper-V. But then again, NT4 is no longer a supported OS at all.

With that being said, NT4 may still very well run as a guest instance in Hyper-V, but without the integration services of course. You could try to perform an offline P2V using SCVMM, but no guarantess. According to this article, P2V is not supported by SCVMM
on OS's such as NT4:

Most other P2V / V2V conversion tools (SCVMM, Disk2VHD, etc.) will most likely not be able to convert NT4, due to its lack of VSS.

Personally I would see if there was a way to upgrade the server, but if you're beyond that, I would try to capture an image of the server by using a software like Symantec Ghost from within the VMWare VM and unpack the captured ghost image inside a
Hyper-V VM.

From what I've read, upgradeing NT4 server to 2000 server is not as simple as it should be . I would pefer to virtualize the NT4 setup. Of course NT4 is not supported, but it should work. Why would there be a "Run an older operation system, such as Windows
NT4.0" tix box in Hardware tab > Processor in Hyper-V Manager/SCVMM?

What I find frustrating is that I'm at the final sage to getting it on Hyper-V. I have it running on VMware workstation with the boot disk using a IDE controller. As soon as I convert it to .vhd, Hyper-V simply doesn't detect the it.

Simply take the VMDK + VMX from Vmware Workstation and copy them into the same folder in your SCVMM Library. Then wait for the Library to discover them.

SCVMM will take care of any conversion that is necessary that it knows to do. It should also read the VMX and configure a new VM that is very close to the origional.

I, personally, do not use VMDK2VHD as it is not up to date with changes to VHD and frequently causes problems.

Most likely you are running into an issue with embedded VMware drivers that you might not be able to get around. If you installed the VMware Tools into the VM.

I assume that this is some piece of legacy software that no one has the installation media for and can only run on NT4.

Beyond this, if you must get the box converted, for an operating system this old I recommending actually paying for a tool (such as PlateSpin, Altiris, etc.) that is designed to handle all the strangeness and not trying to rely on free tools.

Brian Ehlert (hopefully you have found this useful)
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.
Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

Microsoft is conducting an online survey to understand your opinion of the Technet Web site. If you choose to participate, the online survey will be presented to you when you leave the Technet Web site.